Our first major interview on openDemocracy was on the ‘Post-Fascism’ thesis recently expounded by the Hungarian philosopher in the year 2000. Here, Tamás regretfully revisits concept and reality. LeftEast interview.

As Viktor Orbán’s Hungary faces its 2 October referendum on European migrant quotas, diverse opinion is being silenced through partisan cultural funding.

Prime minister Viktor Orban and former president László Sólyom at the Presidential Palace, Budapest, 2010. AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky. All rights reserved.The English-speaking press has paid relatively little attention to the changing cultural and artistic landscape under Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán. Yet its potential repercussions are profound for both the European public and those who might like to follow in the footsteps of Péter Esterházy, the world famous Hungarian author and vocal critic of Orbán who died in July.

With new parliamentary elections slated for December Spain’s Socialists are embroiled in a crisis. Half of the party’s executive committee resigned on Wednesday because party leader Pedro Sánchez still refuses to cooperate with a conservative PP government. For Spain’s commentators the row is symptomatic of the many problems Europe’s left faces.

At first glance, Universidad de Podemos feels like any other rag tag left-wing meeting. But it’s when you dig deeper that the differences reveal themselves.

Podemos. PAimages/Francisco Seco. All rights reserved.At first glance, Universidad de Podemos feels like any other rag tag left-wing meeting. People meander about in ripped jeans and trainers and sit around smoking roll-ups, the conference itself is disorganised (I got lost for a couple of hours after being sent to the wrong building), banners adorn the walls and political T-shirts are on sale at ramshackle stalls. Anyone who went to the People’s Assembly meeting in central London would feel instantly at home.

Just over two years after Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine international investigators published their latest findings on Wednesday, according to which the plane was hit by a Buk missile fired by a rocket launcher brought from Russia into the rebel area. Moscow should admit its partial responsibility for the tragedy, commentators urge, arguing that sooner or later the culprits will be brought to justice anyway.

The European Commission’s recently proposed digital copyright reforms [PDF] have not been well received on the tech scene, and the latest company to protest the EU’s nonsensical decision-making is Mozilla.

Since Brexit, many of the candidates for the 2017 French presidential election have been campaigning to leave the EU or renegotiate the treaties. Some hope to validate these positions with referendums.

In the Republika Srpska, the Serb part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 99.8 percent of voters cast their ballots in favour of keeping a public holiday on January 9 marking the founding of the republic in 1992. The holiday was declared illegal by the country’s constitutional court last year. A look at the commentary columns shows that the referendum was never really about the public holiday